A PAIR of Penrith siblings have raised over £1,000 for charity in memory of their grandad.

Jenni Hodgson, 22, and her sibling Beth Upton, 15, have raised £1,100 for Alzheimer's Society, a national research and care charity for people with dementia and their carers, by swimming 25 miles each during July. 

The pair undertook the challenge at Greystoke and District Swimming Pool, where Jenni is a lifeguard, and dedicated it to the memory of their late grandad John Ridley who recently passed away after battling vascular dementia and Alzheimer's. 

After completing the mammoth swimming challenge, Jenni was on hand to explain more about the pair's motivations.

She said: "My granda was very fit and healthy and he worked full-time for his business until he was 83 and then in 2019 he was diagnosed with vascular dementia and Alzheimer's.

(Image: Supplied) "After that, my Nana became his main carer and the Alzheimer's Society supported her so much, so after he passed we thought that it was only right to repay them and show our gratitude.

"I have always loved my swimming, I am currently a lifeguard and I saw one of these adverts on Facebook from the Alzheimer's Society encouraging people to do their own swimming challenge on the morning of his funeral and I thought that it would be very apt."

To complete the challenge, Jenni and Beth had to swim 72 lengths a day. 

Jenni said: "We did it throughout the whole of July and Beth is only 15 so they were still in school until July 19 so we had to go down for a lot of early mornings.

"I also work so we had to fit it around all of that.

"In total, it was 2,236 lengths each we had to do, so we worked out that if we did it consistently every day we would have to do 72 lengths but some days we were so tired.

"It was really challenging but reminding ourselves of why we were doing it and also with the encouragement of close family, friends, and everyone who supported us, it kept us going."

To date, the pair have raised £1,100 through their JustGiving page, with Jenni struggling to put into words her gratitude.

"I can't even put into words how grateful we are. When we first started doing it I pit £250 as the goal on the JustGiving page and I remember that when we hit our first £50 I cried because of how grateful I was.

"Now that we are at over £1,000, I just can't put into words how grateful I am."

If you would like to support Jenni and Beth's fundraiser, you can HERE